Parliament Approves Two Loans For Audit Service And Polyclinics

Parliament on Wednesday approved two loans amounting to 6,348,000 euros to strengthen the Ghana Audit Service and for the construction and equipping of five polyclinics in the Upper West Region. The one for the Audit Service is an agreement between the Government of Ghana and a German Government-owned development bank, Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau, for an amount of 55 million euros for multi budget support for 2010-2012 with an accompanying grant of 500,000.00 euros. The second loan agreement amounts to 7,980,000.00 euros for the construction and equipping of five polyclinics in the Upper West region. An amount of 2,082,330.00 euros was also approved by resolution for the waiver of taxes and duties in relation to the equipment and materials to be imported for the execution of the polyclinic project. Mr James Klutse, Chairman of the Finance Committee in Parliament, said the first agreement was a joint support mechanism of 11 development partners and the Government of Ghana based on the contributions of financial resources by development partners directly to the government's treasury to complement Ghana's domestic generated revenues. He said in the 2009 financial year, multi donor budget support provided close to 500 million United States dollars for general budget support. Mr Klutse noted that the purpose of the loan was to obtain funds to support the implementation of the national budget. It has terms such as grant amount of 0.5 million euros, loan amount of 55 million euros, commitment charge of 0.25 per cent per annum on the undisputed loan amount, interest rate of 0.75 per cent per annum on the amounts disbursed and the outstanding, grace period of ten years, repayment period of 30 years and maturity period of 40 years. The second loan for phase two of a government five year programme of work focusing on increasing access to healthcare is to be implemented in the Upper West Region where physical access to health care poses a great challenge. According to Mr Klutse, this had led to a situation where patients had to travel long distances to access healthcare adding that government's policy on free antenatal and delivery services was also expected to put additional strain on the few health facilities available in the region. Mr Benjamin Kunbuor, Minister of Health, moved for the motion to be adopted and Mr Seth Tekper, a Deputy Minister of Finance, seconded it.